KNOXVILLE, Tn. - A surprising first week of competition in the Southeastern Conference women's basketball team has left the league with no obvious front-runner.

Tennessee and Kentucky, who have combined to win the conference's last four regular-season titles, lost their SEC home openers. Tennessee, the defending league champion, fell 80-77 to LSU on Thursday. Kentucky lost 83-73 to Florida on Sunday.

Those surprising early-season results suggest the SEC could have a much more wide open race than usual this season. Since the 1985-86 season, only once has the league regular-season champion lost more than two conference games.

No SEC programs are ranked sixth or better in the Top 25, but the league has four schools in the top 12: No. 8 Tennessee, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 10 South Carolina and No. 12 LSU.